It's been a while (Johnny Cruz/Joonas Parkkonen) - Santa Cruz -

America

It's been two weeks for Archie to know about Sammy and Johnny.
It was still weird for him.
Every time he saw them together he felt the urge to say something.
He was happy. For both of them.
He was just not ready to leave the big brother instinct behind.
Right now he was waiting for their little 'goodbye-makeout-session' to end so he could say goodbye to Sammy too.
One week ago their manager asked them to open for some American rock band short term. The original opener probably omitted.
So of course they agreed to play the shows and now it was time to leave Finland.
And leaving Finland also means leaving Sammy.
She'd have her final exams the following weeks so she was secretly glad to have some time on her own.
There wasn't much time to study with either a cuddly boyfriend or a loudly guitar playing brother in the same house.
And they'd be gone for two weeks only so that shouldn't be a big deal.
It was still painful for Archie to walk but he would never give away a chance to play in America.
And besides the fact that it still hurt he was already able to walk on his own again.
"Guys speed time 64 please we need to catch the plane.", Archie said to Sammy and Johnny.
Johnny nodded and took a step back.
"I'll call you as soon as we arrive in New York."
One final kiss for them and then it was Archie's turn to hug her.
"Take care, Smallie."
He ruffled her hair and turned around to leave with the others.
Bad habits die hard.

"Wow it's been SUCH a long time. I'm not sure if I still know this house as well as I used to."
In the doorway standing no other than Jordan, typical smile on his face and
- the first thing Sammy noticed - hairdresser's obviously been a while.
"Are you appreciating my hair? Awesome huh?", he smirked and threw his shoes in the corner carelessly.
"I wasn't sure if I'd ask whether it's wanted or just caused by no time for a hairdresser."
Couch wasn't even an option anymore, they went straight up into her room and crashed onto her bed.
"It's wanted. Actually. I guess it just went a bit out of control."
Sammy couldn't help but laugh.
"So...", Jordan started, now more serious than before, "how's it going?"
"Good. Archie's feeling much better. I mean I'm a bit worried, now that he's in America and I can't even help him if anything happens but it's Archie what can I do.."
She turned towards him and smiled but he just raised an eyebrow.
"You know I'm not talking about Archie."
Oh well.
Time to spell the truth.
"Okay then. We are together. But I suppose you already guessed that."
He smiled and nodded.
"Yes, I did. But I wanted to hear it from you. Congratulations though."
"Thank you."
"You made the first step? I mean you have been avoiding the truth for months. And I think he felt exactly the same."
He was right.
They talked about the fact that they liked - well more than liked obviously - the other one long before they started dating.
"He basically took me up on a fucking hill and then asked me out."
Jordan started laughing and mumbled something un-hearable.
"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before. We agreed to keep it a secret first and then the whole accident story happened and..."
"It's fine, stop worrying. What counts is that you two are happy now and, I mean, as long as I hear it from you and not from social media it's all good."
Sammy was already about to answer but suddenly the door bell ran again.
"Probably the mailman, be right back."
She ran down the stairs and literally ripped the door open.
A friendly, familiar face smiled down at her and the person it belonged to lifted their arm to wave shortly.
"Wow, what's that with the long hair now?", Sammy asked sarcastically as she noticed the bun on Noah's head.
Of course he was confused by her question because he didn't know about Jordan and the story before.
"Never mind, what brings you here?"
Noah chuckled and leaned against the door frame.
"Very nice way you greet your friends though. I wanted to see how you're doing, you know because Archie..."
Sammy gestured him to stop talking and stepped back to let him in.
"I know I should be thankful but I've heard this question way too much over the last week. I'm totally fine and so is Archie. They're playing some shows in America this week so I'm afraid you cannot hang around with them right now."
"I'm glad you're doing better. And Archie, too. But my plan was not to hang around with him or the others. I just wanted to check on you and I also wanted to ask when you think we should start practicing again."
Now he also noticed Jordan who just entered the living room.
"Ey, I didn't know you were here too, sorry."
Jordan smiled and shook his head, saying that it was no problem.
"Just tell me when you're free and we'll find a time to meet up. I'm sure Archie will let us play at their rehearsal place. But I also have my final exams this week so I don't think I'll manage to find a free hour before Friday.", Sammy explained to answer Noah's question.
"Oh I had no idea. Well then let's say we talk about this next week so you can concentrate on your exams, alright?"
They agreed and soon Noah was gone again.
"I'm a bit afraid that I will fail the maths exams.", Sammy sighed and sat down on the couch.
Two minutes ago she asked Jordan what he wanted for dinner and now she wasn't even in the mood to prepare something.
"I'm sure you'll do good, as always. And if it helps you, I'm even worse."
That indeed was true.
In 7th grade he almost had to repeat the year because of maths.
Sammy helped him to get a better grade back then but she can't take the exam for him on Tuesday.
"And now we cook something for dinner, because I'm hungry. And I also don't want to talk about maths, so move your lazy ass to the kitchen."
He leaned down to grab her arms and pulled her away from the couch.
"What do you want?"
He smirked and whispered, "Spaghetti Bolognese."
"Oh no."